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Fewer people are starting small businesses now that the job market is looking better.

The number of companies started in 2012 fell along with the unemployment rate - a sign that people chose new jobs over launching their own companies. That's the finding of a study released Wednesday by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

The foundation, which follows trends in entrepreneurship, estimates that there were 514,000 new business owners per month last year, down from 543,000 each month in 2011. In 2010, the peak of the recession and its aftermath, there were 565,000 new business owners each month, the highest for any of the 16 years tracked by the survey.

Dane Stangler, the foundation's research director, says the number of new companies hit a record during the recession. Now they're returning to more normal levels.